{"id":311072,"date":"2026-02-22T07:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311072\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T07:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:11:09","slug":"italian-broadcaster-apologises-for-off-air-remark-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311072\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian broadcaster apologises for off-air remark \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/italy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/italy\/\">Italy<\/a>\u2019s state broadcaster \u200cRAI was forced to apologise to the Jewish community on Saturday \u200cafter an off-air remark advising its producers to \u201cavoid\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/israel\/\">Israeli<\/a> crew was \u200bbroadcast before coverage of the four-man bobsleigh event at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/winter-olympics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/winter-olympics\/\">Winter Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The head of RAI\u2019s sports division had already resigned earlier in the \u200bweek after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening \u2060ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its \u200cjournalists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On \u200cSaturday, \u200bviewers heard \u201cLet\u2019s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one\u201d, and then \u201cno, because . . .\u201d, \u2060before the sound \u200bwas cut off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">RAI CEO Giampaolo \u200bRossi said the incident represented a \u201cserious\u201d breach of the \u200cprinciples of impartiality, respect and \u200binclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added that \u2060RAI had opened an \u2060internal inquiry \u200bto swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a separate statement RAI\u2019s board of directors condemned the remark as \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The board apologised to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">RAI is the country\u2019s largest media \u200corganisation and operates \u2060national television, radio and digital news services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca\u2019s \u200copening ceremony commentary had dealt \u201ca serious blow\u201d to the company\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">His missteps \u200bincluded misidentifying venues and public figures, \u200band making comments about national teams that were widely criticised. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall  b-it-article-body__copyright\">(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s state broadcaster \u200cRAI was forced to apologise to the Jewish community on Saturday \u200cafter an off-air remark&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,3410,102,43,40,38,41,39,23196],"class_list":{"0":"post-311072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-italy","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories","16":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}